Fall is in the air and my gardening is winding down. I thought I’d share some of the things I do
this time of the year to prepare to put my garden to rest and be sure that the
food I’ve grown is preserved for next year.

Picking Dill

I have plans to go
out this afternoon and pick some dill weed to put in my dehydrator. Dill weed is the “leaves” of the dill
plant. It doesn’t really look like
leaves it is like a soft needleish sort of thing. (Ha, my auto correct wants to make that word
into needlefish J)

First thing to do is pull the plant tip it over into a paperbag and give it a good shake. Seeds will fall out into the bag.

Then pull the leaves off with your fingers
and lay the leaves on a dehydrator tray. It is wise to have a cookie sheet or some sort of tray underneath your
mesh. It is small stuff and some of it
will fall through the screen. Put it in
your dehydrator or for a couple of hours.
When it crumbles it is done.
Use the dill weed in casseroles
and eggs in the mornings throughout the year.
I really love the dill flavor with our venison. Make a venison pot pie and add some dill……
yum!

The dill heads are mostly ready too so I’ll probably take
care of most of that today too. The dill
heads are ready as soon as the seeds are looking dry. You don’t want to wait too long because when
it is dry it will start falling off the plant.
That is just what it is supposed to do.
What we do to save it is simply bend the stalk over placing the head in
a plastic bag. Then give it a good
shake. Much of the seeds will fall right
off.

If your heads are still a little green you can also just cut
the whole head off and place them in a paperbag. As the head dries the seeds will fall off
and end up in the bottom of the bag.
Don’t pull those heads off too early though, you do want to allow the
seeds to mature.

Zucchini and Zoodles!

I also have several HUGE zucchini ready. Now
Zucchini doesn’t really can very well. I
soppose you could can it… but it would be mush in my opinion. Can it in soup recipes but I’d not recommend
canning it by itself. However I DO
highly recommend dehydrating zucchini.

Zucchini does not need to be blanched before dehydrating,
just cut it up and dehydrate. The skins
can get thick and tough. If it is a large zucchini that I forgot about in the
garden I peel it first. If it is young
and tender dehydrate it with the skins right on it.

You can slice it thin, sprinkle it with some seasoning salt
and dehydrate it for snacking like chips.
A mandolin slicer works best for slicing nice even thin slices. But if you don’t have one a sharp knife and
careful hand does well too.

My preferred method for dehydrating zucchini is to dice it
up and dry it that way. I use dried
zucchini for soup, stews or whatever all winter long. It is a great way to sneak in some
vegetables. Many casseroles have dried
zucchini, I’ll even add it to my spaghetti sauce. I’ve considered adding it to chili… but I
might get some objections from my guys.
They do have limits.

This
year I got a great idea from my friend Vickilynn Haycraft of Real Food Living.... Zoodles! Listen as I explain just what these are and how to make them easily.

Tomatoes, Peppers and Salsa.

I also need to go out and pick more ripe tomatoes. My tomatoes always ripen late in the
year. We have very cool nights and
lately we’ve been having cool days as well.
Tomatoes need heat to ripen so we’ll have to see how many more ripen up.

This year I’ve been freezing my tomatoes as
I pick them. My reason is actually a
mistake I made this spring. I bought
Roma tomatoes just like I do every year.
However the variety of Roma that I got this year are actually a pretty
small tomato. More of a plum tomato
size. They are tasty but it is such a
pain to blanch and peel all those small tomatoes.

If you freeze tomatoes, as they thaw they practically peel
themselves. Run them under warm water
and as the peels thaw they slip right off the tomato. Then allow the rest of the tomato to thaw and
you can use as normal.

I’ve got lots of
peppers in my garden right now ready to pick as well so I’ll be doing salsa in
the next week. I don’t have a salsa
recipe on my site yet because I’ve not yet found that perfect recipe.

Remember with salsa the acidity of the recipe
is what makes it safe to process in a waterbath. Use a tested recipe, then change up the
spices to get the flavor you want. Be
sure and stick to the ratio of tomatoes, vinegar and other veggies (peppers and
onions) to maintain a safe acidity. I’ve
used the base recipe out of the ball blue book.

I think I’ll try another recipe I found on our state extension service
website this year. If it meets approval
I’ll get it up on my site.

September means.... apples and hunting

September is apple season here. We live in an area where there are lots of orchards. So we usually get to go and pick our apples
direct from the field. I LOVE where I
live. Next show I think I’ll discuss All
Things Apples! Because there are Lots
of things you can do with apples.

After apple season is hunting season. If you are a hunter be sure and listen to the
show I did last time. I talked about how
I got started canning meat and how easy it really is. If you are interested in canning meat you might check out my Elk and Venison Recipes book. How to use home canned meat in your recipes.

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